My non-fiction reading was down in 2012, compared to 2011, but I still managed to reach my goals in these three non-fiction reading challenges.

Because the Dewey Decimal System challenge allowed me to count any non-fiction, without restrictions, I entered at the Master level, committing to read 16-20 Dewey-decimal-classified books

SUCCESS!

1. Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917 by Sally M. Walker

2. Searching for the Secret River by Kate Grenville

3. A Prairie Boy’s Winter by William Kurelek

4. Seeing Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo & Robert Llewellyn

5. Chickens, Mules, & Two Old Fools by Victoria Twead

6. Walden by Henry David Thoreau

7. A Small Furry Prayer by Steven Kotler

8. White River Junctions by Dave Norman

9. Winnie & Gurley by Robert G. Hewitt

10. Notes to My Mother-in-Law by Phyllida Law

11. Manners for Women by Mrs. Humphrey

12. Heading Home: On Starting a New Life in a Country Place by Lawrence Scanlan

13. The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard

14. UContent by Nicholas G. Tomaiuolo

15. Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

16. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

17. The Canadian Food Guide by Pierre & Janet Berton

18. Memoirs by Pierre Elliott Trudeau

19. Mordecai: the Life and Times by Charles Foran – in progress

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I went for a Diploma status (requiring 10 qualifying books) in the Non-Fiction, Non-Memoir, but went a little easier on myself

in the Memorable Memoirs challenges, committing to only 1 -4 books to make the Diarist level.

I had SUCCESS! in both challenges and you can find my break-out of books on the sign-up pages for each one:
Non-Fiction, Non-Memoir 2012 sign-up
Memorable Memoirs 2012 sign-up

I entered a couple of reading challenges this year that took me back to the reading of my childhood.

The first was Reading Books Published in the First Years of My Life.

I originally thought I would complete this challenge (at the Toddler level) by reading adult books, but the challenge logo put me in mind of snuggling up with a book as a child – and so I decided to read some of the books I might have read then.

SUCCESS!

1954 – Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss
1955 – Eloise by Kay Thompson
1956 – Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

* * * * *

FAILURE!
Of all the challenges that I couldn’t complete this year, I’m most disappointed that I didn’t get this one: Books That Made Me Love Reading. It called for a post a month about the books that made reading such a passion for me.

There’s so many books I wanted to share – and, alas, so little time!

I did manage the first four months:
January: These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
February: Trixie Belden and the Red Trailer Mystery
March: The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
April: A Place for Johnny Bill by Ruth Juline Bishop

At the beginning of the year, I was reading picture books to my four-year-old grandson, who was living with us at the time. Since he’s moved across the country, November saw me scrambling to fulfill a couple of challenges and enjoying these picture books on my own.

Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham

I’m very fond of Harry, the little white dog who wants to do ‘dogly’ things and ends up so dirty that his family doesn’t recognize him. How can he make them see it’s him?

Harry, of course, appears in several books, including No Roses for Harry!, a copy of which still sits on my book shelf.

A Few Blocks by Cybele Young

When I hear the title of this book, I think of building blocks. Don’t you? But it’s actually referring to the few city blocks that Ferdie and his older sister Viola have to walk on their way to school.

The illustrations in A Few Blocks are lush pastels, complex drawings of Ferdie’s imaginary adventures, within the cut-out shapes of every day. Very clever and should appeal to ages 4-8.

Eloise By Kay Thompson

Eloise is six years old and lives in the penthouse at the Plaza Hotel. She is ‘precocious’ which means that she is spoiled and causes all kinds of trouble.

I don’t remember reading Eloise when I was young: maybe my mother decided she wasn’t a good role model!

Gimme-Jimmy by Sherrill S. Cannon

Jimmy is a boy whose favourite phrase is “Gimme”. One day, Jimmy’s hand starts to grow every time he says that, and he must learn how to reduce its size by sharing and using manners.

Told in rhyme, it hits the nail on the head, even if perhaps it does it a few too many times.

A few of the reading challenges that I entered this year required only one book to complete. As such, they don’t really each need a separate post to report.

Books in Translation Challenge
SUCCESS!

I thought this would be a whole lot easier, given the number of foreign language books being translated into English. (And given that I had committed to read Montaigne’s essays – which didn’t happen.) But, in the end, unless I’ve missed something in my year’s reading, I needed to obtain a book just to fulfill this challenge.

The Stranger by Albert Camus (translated from the French) Completed Nov 2012

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Sir Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge
SUCCESS!

I honestly had no idea what Terry Pratchett was all about when I signed up for this challenge. I soon found out he’s a master of fantasy – and that’s a genre I’m not too enthralled with. I was thankful that I had signed on for only one book – and I read that.

The Carpet People

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Books I Started But Didn’t Finish
FAILURE!

There was only 1 book that I started in 2011 but didn’t finish, that I had hoped to complete in 2012. That was May Sarton’s The Magnificent Spinster. Alas, it’s been so long now, if I ever get back to this book, I’ll have to start all over again.

SUCCESS!

The Color-Coded Reading Challenge is one of my favourites. I spent most of year not knowing how I was going to get ‘yellow’ but finally found a book in September.

Did you participate in this challenge?

I needed to read a book with the following colours in the title:

Blue***Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan Completed Mar 2012
Red***Trixie Belden and the Red Trailer Mystery by Julie Campbell Completed Feb 2012
Yellow***Yellowthread Street by William Marshall Completed Sep 2012
Green***Falling Into Green by Cher Fischer Completed July 2012
Brown***The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton Completed Mar 2012
Black***The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham Completed Jun 2012
White***White River Junctions by Dave Norman Completed Mar 2012
Any other colour***These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder Completed Jan 2012
Implied colour***In Cold Blood by Truman Capote Completed Sep 2012

The goal in the Read Your Name Challenge was to read my name or the name of my blog in book title first letters. Since I was already in for the A- Z Reading Challenge, I figured I’d covered off every letter of the alphabet at least once. So, riding the wave of signing up for so many challenges, I super-sized this one and decided to read both my name and my blog name.

SUCCESS! (But just barely – man – those “E”s were hard to get!)

This was a lot of fun! What do you think of my choices?

D***Divine Ryans, The by Wayne Johnston
E***Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear
B***Blizzard of Glass by Sally M. Walker
B***Birth House, The by Ami McKay
I***I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley
E***Echo Maker, The by Richard Powers

@***At Bertram’s Hotel by Agatha CHristie

E***11/22/63 by Stephen King
X***oXford Messed Up by Andrea Kayne Kaufman
U***Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
R***Recipe for Bees, A by Gail Anderson-Dergatz
B***Beggar’s Garden, The by Michael Christie
A***Absolutist, The by John Boyne
N***Notes to my Mother-in-Law by Phyllida Law
I***I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
S***Sisters Brothers, The by Patrick deWitt

SUCCESS!

This seemed like a fun challenge and one that is a bit different: instead of using book titles, it looked at the images on the covers of books.
To complete the Find the Cover Challenge, I had to find images on my book covers starting with the letters that spell out the year: Two Thousand Twelve.

But it really wasn’t that much fun. There are often so many different covers for a book that I felt as if I wasn’t connecting with anyone with my choices. Nonetheless, you can find my choices on my sign-up page.

SUCCESS!

Since there are so many enticing new series out there, this challenge was sure to be a cinch. I opted in at the basic level to read 3 series starts.

Although I exceeded my ‘start’ goal, I found only 1 series in 5 that I’ll invest any more time in – an interesting statistic to me.

1. The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller Completed Mar 2012
Set in post-WWI England and featuring Laurence Bartram, this is the only series I started this year that I will continue.

2. The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe Completed Mar 2012
I was hopeful for this series starring Hazel Micallef, chief of Port Dundas, Ontario police. It was solidly plotted but, ultimately, a little dark for me.

3. Yellowthread Street by William Marshall 1975 Completed Sep 2012

4. The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham 1929 Completed Jun 2012
The first in the famed Albert Campion series.

5. Death at the President’s Lodging by Michael Innes 1936 Completed Nov 2012
Inspector Appleby’s debut

SUCCESS!

I’m glad I took on this challenge because it helped me get caught up on some favourite series. I finished the three series I set out for myself, plus a fourth.

Chet & Bernie by Spencer Quinn
The Dog Who Knew Too Much Completed Aug 2012
A Fistful of Collars Completed Oct 2012

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
The Mapping of Love and Death Completed Apr 2012
A Lesson in Secrets Completed Aug 2012
Elegy for Eddie Completed Aug 2012

Flavia de Luce by Alan Bradley
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows Completed Jan 2012

Bess Crawford by Charles Todd
An Unmarked Grave Completed Jul 2012

SUCCESS!

I entered this at the easy level, committing to one book from each of the seven continents. In fact, I read more than one in 5 of the categories.

Here are my official titles.

• Africa
African Love Stories, edited by Ama Ata Aidoo (various countries) Completed May 2012

• Asia
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (India) Completed Apr 2012

• Australasia/Oceania
The Secret River by Kate Grenville (Australia) Completed Feb 2012

• Europe
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyen Completed Mar2012

• North America
The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield (Arkansas, USA) Completed Jan 2012)

• South America
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (Peru) Completed Sep 2012)

• The Seventh Continent (here I could choose either Antarctica or my own ´seventh´ setting, eg the sea, the space, history, the future – whatever).
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury (space) Completed Sep 2012

SUCCESS!

I booked as a Business Traveler last year, committing to read at least three books set somewhere in the 50 sovereign states of Europe. In fact, I ended in a five star Deluxe Entourage!

Altogether I read a total of 10 books set in Europe, covering 5 different countries (7 countries if you break out the United Kingdom).

Germany: Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyen Completed Mar 2012
Spain: Chickens, Mules, & Two Old Fools by Victoria Twead Completed Feb 2012
France: The Absolutist by John Boyne Completed Aug 2012
Iceland: The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesay Completed Jul 2012
United Kingdom (Wales): How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn Completed Oct 2012
United Kingdom (Scotland): Gillespie & I by Jane Harris Completed Apr 2012
United Kingdom (England): The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Completed May 2012
United Kingdom (England): Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Completed Jul 2012
United Kingdom (England): Oxford Messed Up by Andrea Kayne Kaufman Completed May 2012
United Kingdom (England): The Return of Captain Emmett by Elizabeth Speller Completed Feb 2012

SUCCESS!

When I joined Swapna’s South Asian Reading Challenge, I committed to reading only two books. But what B-I-G books they were!

I’m happy to report success.

1. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (set in India) 1,488 page Completed April 2012

2. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (set in India & Pakistan) 536 pages Completed Oct 2012

SUCCESS!

I entered this at the “Sweet Tea” level, needing to read three books – and three books is what I’ve read.

Bring on the tea!

1. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Kentucky and Louisiana) Completed January 2012

2. The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield (Arkansas) Completed January 2012

3. 11/22/63 by Stephen King (Texas) Completed September 2012

I think it’s time to start recording the results of my 2012 reading challenges. I thought I’d start with this one since I hosted it.

SUCCESS!

All of the books on my list but one were by new-to-me authors. The one repeat author is a favourite of mine. After a slow start, I did read all the books and greatly enjoyed them all except for the repeat author (go figure). This was my year to finally read Wayne Johnston for the first—and second—time, but not the last.

If you entered the challenge, please feel free to link your wrap-up post in the comments. If you don’t have a wrap-up post, then let me know in the comments how you did. Did you discover any new authors? Whether or not you participated in the challenge, tell me: Have you enjoyed any Canadian books this year?

Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize: (1991) The Divine Ryans by Wayne Johnston 5 stars

Canadian Authors’ Association Award for Fiction: (1999) The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston 4½ stars

Scotiabank Giller Prize: (2011) Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyen 4½ stars

Amazon.ca First Novel Award: (2002) Crow Lake by Mary Lawson 4 stars

Governor-General’s Literary Award: (1966) A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence 3 stars

Yesterday was the 95th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion, the largest man-made explosion up to the atomic bomb. Two thousand people died, more than six thousand were wounded and blinded (by flying glass), and over 9,000 left homeless. Relief efforts were hampered by a blizzard the day after the disaster.

Compare those figures to the sinking of the Titanic five years earlier: 1,500 people dead, no record of injuries (they would have been few), no one blinded, no one left homeless.

But the luxury ship makes a better movie than the poor and working class homes in Halifax that were destroyed, the dead from the ship included rich people, and they were mainly American and British, while the explosion affected Canadians.

Perhaps that’s why there’s barely anyone alive in the developed world who does not know the story of the Titanic; while few people, even Canadians, remember the tragedy that befell Halifax Nova Scotia on December 6th, 1917.

You can read more details of the explosion at my review of the book Blizzard of Glass.

Ellen at Invest Me in My Motley has written a touching requiem, including links to some extremely moving material. I encourage you to have a look.

I’m into the home stretch for my 2012 Reading Challenges, faced with a thick stack of unread books for the month of December. If we get a couple of storm days this month, I may just make it!

November’s entries include a couple of tomes I would never have otherwise read but for Challenges, and I’m happy for the broadening of my reading horizons. There are several prize-winners in this month’s list as well. Enjoy!

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (Fiction, Western, Noir)
I had somehow expected this picaresque novel which won Canada’s Governor-General’s Award and was short-listed for the Booker prize in 2011 to be more light-hearted than it is.
The tale is narrated by Eli Sisters who, along with his brother Charlie, have been hired by the Commodore to kill Hermann Warm, a gold miner in 1851 California. Eli, a surprisingly warm and likable outlaw, is struggling with the ethical issues in his life and is thinking about packing in the life of hired killer.
The book deserves more than this brief summary. Michael Christie writing for the National Post said “The overall effect is fresh, hilariously anti-heroic, often genuinely chilling, and relentlessly compelling (…) A mighty fine read.” I can’t say it better.
Read this if: you appreciate black comedy; you want a fresh take on a western novel; or you just want to see what all the fuss was about – it’s worth the short time it will take you to read this. 4½ stars

* * * * *

The Beggar’s Garden
by Michael Christie (Fiction, Short Stories, Canadian)
This collection of short stories is set in the “riotous and hellish, but strangely contained, slum of [Vancouver’s] Downtown Eastside”. This area which includes part of Hastings Street is infamous across Canada. As one of Christie’s characters observes: “It was as if the country had been tipped up at one end and all the sorry b!@#$%$s had slid west, stopping only when they reached the sea, perhaps because the sea didn’t want them either.”
Told from various points of view – the grandfather who leaves food and clothing in dumpsters that he knows his drug-addicted grandson dives, an addict who has just spent his entire welfare cheque on a giant dope trip, a woman who runs a second-hand store, and so on – the stories all intrigued me. Short story collections always seem to have a few weaker pieces. I didn’t think this had any.
Read this if: you’re interested in knowing just how close any one of us is to being on the street; or you’d like some insight into the people in a Canadian city’s slum. 4 stars

* * * * *

Holes by Louis Sachar (Fiction, Children’s Chapter)
Holes is the winner of multiple awards including the 1999 Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. It’s also the book upon which the movie of the same name is based.
Stanley Yelnats has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention centre (in the desert), Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day, digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. Poor Stanley: his family doesn’t have a lot of money and he thought this might be the first time he got to a summer-type camp. Instead, he ends up playing Jacob Two-Two to the Boss’ Hooded Fang.
There’s a mystery told in flashback so the reader is always ahead of Stanley, but just, and there’s piecing together for the reader to do too. It’s actually quite a bit of fun. I’m finding some really good books by reading Newbery winners.
Read this if: you saw the movie Holes (c’mon, you have to read the book); you were a fan of Jacob Two-Two; or you like a mystery with some history, with a little good guy versus bad guy thrown in. 4 stars

* * * * *

The Birth House by Ami McKay (Women’s Fiction, Canadian, Atlantic Canadian)
This 2007 debut novel by Canadian author Ami McKay (well, Canada claims her since she lives here now) is set in Nova Scotia on the shore of the Bay of Fundy, the bulk of the story taking place in the years 1916-1919.
The protagonist, Dora Rare, is befriended and mentored by the community’s midwife/herbalist. Over the course of her life, Dora’s home becomes the birth house – or the place where the women of the community go to have their babies, rather than making the sometimes dangerous trip into the nearest town where ‘modern’ male medicine suits their needs rather less.
The Birth House has been described as “an unforgettable tale of the struggles women have faced to control their own bodies and keep the best parts of tradition alive in the world of modern medicine.” While I’m all for that, the rabid superstition and novena cures of the training midwife detracted from the strength of the women’s positions, in my opinion.
Read this if: women’s issues are important to you and you want to know something of their evolution in rural North America; or you want an authentic picture of WWI era Nova Scotia (the description of the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion is particularly moving). 3½ stars

* * * * *

Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh (Literary Fiction, WWII)
Winner of the 1952 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Britain’s oldest literary award, Men At Arms is the first part of Waugh’s The Sword of Honour Trilogy , his look at the Second World War. It follows Guy Crouchback, the nearly-forty-year-old son of an English aristocratic family who manages to get accepted to officers training in the early part of 1940, and is eventually posted to Dakar in Senegal West Africa. While there, he inadvertently poisons one of his fellow officers and is sent home in disgrace.
That’s about all the plot there is. But the book was interesting for its look at British officers’ instruction in WWII, in contrast with other reading I’ve done which focuses on the training of rank and file soldiers, and for the insight into the chaos that was the British Army in the early part of the war: “The brigade resumed its old duty of standing by for orders.” Waugh’s wickedly dry sense of humour is brilliant.
Read this if: you’re a fan of Downton Abbey – different war, but same country and class; or you love the subtle humour of traditional British writers. 3½ stars

* * * * *

Three Junes by Julia Glass (Fiction)
If this hadn’t won the National Book Award in 2002, I’d tell you it was a women’s novel, and a mediocre one at that. I might still tell you that.
Three summers (1989, 1995, & 1999) in the life of a Scottish family, in Dumfries & in NYC. There are some expressive observations about death (“Everyone dies alone, no matter how many people there are in the room”); and life (“Time plays like an accordion in the way it can stretch out and compress itself in a thousand melodic ways”) but overall, I wasn’t satisfied with any of the character development, and there was little plot to speak of.
Read this if: you like cause-and-effect parent-and-children stories; or you like things tied up in a neat bundle. 3½ stars

* * * * *

Memoirs by Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Non-fiction, Memoirs, Canadian)
Published in 1993, this set of former Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s memoirs briefly covers the first 49 years of his life including childhood, early world travels and entry into politics, and then concentrates on his time as Prime Minister from 1968-1984.
Anyone who is familiar with Trudeau’s time in office knows that humility was never his strong suit. But the man could lead – and here we gain insight into how he did that and how strong self-confidence (alright – arrogance) helped him to do it. You’ll want to have at least a basic understanding of the Canadian parliamentary system before reading this. A passing acquaintance with the political issues of the day such as Quebec’s push for sovereignty-association, and repatriation of the constitution would enrich your read but is not necessary.
Don’t expect in-depth political analysis: although this book weighs in at over two pounds when a similar sized volume might normally be a full half-pound lighter, the font is large, the text spaced, and there are a number of photographs throughout. And don’t expect any revelations about his personal life either. When in office, Trudeau scrupulously kept his family separate and apart from his political life. His memoirs’ contents mirror that.
Read this if: you loved him, or you hated him (Trudeau seemed to seldom leave anyone on the sidelines with regard to their feelings for him); you want a refresher on Canadian political history of the time (albeit from one point of view); or you want an introduction to one of Canada’s most widely-known and best-remembered leaders. 3½ stars

* * * * *

Death At The President’s Lodging (aka Seven Suspects) by Michael Innes (Fiction, Vintage Mystery)
This is the first in Innes’ Inspector Appleby series and was published in 1936. I expected perhaps something akin to Agatha Christie but Innes is very different. Or perhaps I only think so because this particular mystery was set in an Oxford/Cambridge-based university and I have no understanding whatever of dons/underdons/proctors and so on and found it difficult to wade through all of those issues (which are pertinent to the crime). The mystery was solid but although I may read more Innes, given the number of untried mystery series out there, I doubt that it will be soon.
Read this if: you like a really ‘academic’ mystery, British, straight-up; or, like I did, you need an “I” author for an A-Z Reading Challenge. 3 stars

* * * * *

The Stranger by Albert Camus (Literary Fiction, Translated, WWII)
The preface to my edition (Everyman’s Library) states: Albert Camus’ spare, laconic masterpiece about a Frenchman who murders an Arab in Algeria is famous for having diagnosed with a clarity almost scientific, that condition of reckless alienation and spiritual exhaustion which characterizes so much of twentieth-century life. Possessing both the force of a parable and the sentence-by-sentence excitement of a perfectly executed thriller, The Stranger is the work of one of the most engaged and intellectually alert of our century’s writers.” (…)(T)he earliest readers of The Stranger recognized the bleak, claustrophobic world portrayed in Camus’ novel. The bleakness, the banality and the sense of imprisonment were interpreted as an acute and accurate evocation of the feeling of the period. [WWII Occupied France].
It’s considered a modern classic and I’m glad that I’ve read it, although reading it was not in the least enjoyable.
Read this if: you enjoy existentialist thinking (this is considered by some – although not the author – to be an example of that movement in philosophy; you want to better understand the mental attitude of the general populace of occupied France faced with the daily drudgery of earning a living, finding food and fuel and living an uneasy coexistence with the Germans; or you need a short translated piece of fiction for a Reading Challenge. 2½ stars

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Linda Spalding has won this year’s Canada’s Governor-General’s Award for English language fiction for her novel, The Purchase, which the CBC describes as “a historical tale looking back at the lives of slaves and slave owners that was inspired by stories from her ancestors, who were Quakers. ”

Here’s the Globe & Mail’s story, citing winners for non-fiction, children’s fiction – writing and illustration, poetry, drama, and translation – for both the English language and French language categories.

October found me busy on a “workcation” and doing a thorough housecleaning in preparation for company. I ‘m still concentrating on books that will help me complete Reading Challenges, so there’s an eclectic line-up here. If you have reviews of any of these books that you’d like me to link to, please let me know.

This month-end summary catches me up until the end of November. Whew!

THE DIVINE RYANS by Wayne Johnston (Literary Fiction, Canadian, Atlantic Canadian)
This won the first Thomas Head Raddell Award for the best Atlantic Canadian adult fiction in 1991. Set in St. John’s Newfoundland during the 1966-’67 hockey season, it centres on Draper Doyle Ryan, age 9, and the extended family in his home. They are known throughout St. John’s as the Divine Ryans because there were so many priests and nuns in the family. Our last family reunion, Uncle Reginald said, was known to the rest of the world as Vatican II.
His father died recently and Draper Doyle is seeing his ‘ghost’. Not to fear: the ghost is not the least bit supernatural, but rather psychological. Draper Doyle has “lost” a week of his life around his father’s death and funeral, and over this winter, in long talks with his Uncle Reginald, he (& we) discover the truth of what happened that week.
The Divine Ryans is a warm, funny and moving book about a boy’s coming to terms with his father’s death, and with his place in his family. I highly recommend it.
Read this if: just read it. 5 stars

* * * * *

HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY by Richard Llewellyn (Literary Fiction, Historical)
The novel is set in Wales in the 1880s and 1890s, during the reign of Queen Victoria and tells the story of the Morgans, a respectable mining family, through the eyes of the youngest son, Huw.
His five brothers and his father are miners but Huw’s academic ability sets him apart from his elder brothers and enables him to consider a future away from this troubled industrial environment.
Oh, what a beautiful book! The countryside, the language, the characters. There is much tragedy, but there is much joy as well. The only complaint I have is the truncated ending- very unsatisfying, and keeps it from earning a perfect 5.
Right, you – read this one too. 4½ stars

* * * * *

TWENTY-SIX by Leo McKay Jr. (Literary Fiction, Canadian, Atlantic Canadian)
On May 9, 1992, a methane explosion ripped through the Westray coal mine in Stellarton Nova Scotia, resulting in the death of all twenty-six men underground at the time.
Twenty-Six by Leo McKay Jr. Is closely based on that event, imagining the lives of the fictitious Burrows family, affected by that disaster: a troubled collection of violent, alcoholic, and underemployed working-class men, and the women who put up with them.
Renamed Eastlake & set a few years earlier than actual, the mine and the explosion are major components of the book, forming the background of the plot. But the story is about people: father Ennis, desperately wanting to connect with his sons, and messing up every interaction with them. Elder son Arvel is having marriage problems; younger son Ziv despairs of having a future in his home, Nova Scotia.
The reality of employment prospects and life in rural Nova Scotia is deftly portrayed.
This has been on my reading list for some time so when my local librarian suggested that I read it for One Book Nova Scotia; I readily put my name on the reserve list. I’m glad I did – and now I’m investigating their suggested list of ‘Read-a-likes’.
Read this if: you’re interested in what it’s like to live with limited education and prospects in rural/small-town Atlantic Canada; or you’d like an introduction to the WestRay mine disaster. 4 stars

I also recommend you watch the 80 minute NFB film Westray, which focuses on the aftermath and the official inquiry. As in life, so in the novel: “No matter what the inquiry finds in their hearings, no matter whether a criminal trial takes place, and no matter the outcome if one does. His son is dead. Nothing is going to make his death right. Nothing can justify it, explain it, nothing can make it hurt less. His son is dead.”

* * * * *

MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie (Literary Fiction, Historical, Magical Realism)
Double winner in 1981 of the Man Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Midnight’s Children begins with the birth of the protagonist Saleem Sinai at midnight Aug 15th 1947 – when the country of India, as partitioned from Pakistan, was also “born”.
Rushdie’s entire story is based on magical realism: Saleem discovers that he has supernatural mental powers that allow him to converse with all of the other children born in that hour, and that they too have ‘gifts’ of varying degrees.
Now that Saleem is dying, he is relating his story to his companion Padma. That story follows closely the course of history in Modern India, and involves also the illegitimate son of the former British estate owner, who was born at the exact moment Saleem was.
I’m not a fan of magical realism but sometimes can enjoy it. Not this time. Rushdie embroidered the telling too much for me – going off on tangents and asides until Padma (and I) were saying: You’re talking funny again. Are you going to tell (the story) or not?
Add to that that to really ‘get’ this book, you need a familiarity with the political players and events of the time that I don’t possess. I found the story was presented in such a way that it was difficult to learn.
Read this if: you have studied the modern history of India and would like a fanciful account of its birth and early years. 3½ stars

THE CANADIAN FOOD GUIDE by Pierre and Janet Berton (Non-fiction, Food & Cooking)
I don’t think I’ve ever come across such an inaptly named book. Remember that “Canada’s Food Guide” with the “four basic food groups” that we studied in elementary school? Doesn’t this sound like that? Well, it’s not like that.
This slim volume is more a history of eating in Canada from the pioneer settlers until 1966 when this book was published. I found most interesting the comments on attitudes toward dining in the 1920s through the 1950s and the ‘modern’ take of forty years ago. Tastes and trends in food are always changing, especially in ‘immigrant countries’ such as Canada and the USA, and as a time capsule of the late 1960s, early 1970s, this is superb because it contains not only recipes but commentary. The recipes (which are not the bulk of the book) include such “old-time Canadian standbys” as butter tarts, lemon snow and apple crisp. Yum.
Read this if: you’re Canadian and you’re into cooking; you’re a history buff and would like to add an additional social perspective to your knowledge; or you’re looking for some “old-time” Canadian recipes. 3 stars

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THE MUSEUM OF DR. MOSES by Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction, Short Stories, Suspense)
This is only the second Oates I’ve read, the first being the more-or-less conventional We Were the Mulvaneys that did not prepare me in any way for this collection of short stories, which are billed “mystery and suspense”. The suspense I get; I’m not so sure about mystery. All of the stories have an element of the criminal or the macabre.
I found “Suicide Watch” to be the most memorable: told from the point of view of a businessman who has been called to visit his son in prison(?)/ psychiatric hospital(?) The businessman’s grandson & the child’s mother are missing, and the son isn’t talking. When he does open up to his father, he tells a chilling tale of mailing the boy’s body to his father – and then proclaims it all a test to see if his father would believe such a thing of him.
I’m checking my mail every day for parcels.
Read this if: you like short stories that can make your spine tingle; or you’re a Joyce Carol Oates fan. 3 stars

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A FISTFUL OF COLLARS by Spencer Quinn (Fiction, Mystery)
The fifth and latest entry in the wonderful Chet & Bernie series, featuring the PI team of Bernie Little and his canine partner Chet, who narrates the stories.
In this mystery, Chet & Bernie are hired to ‘babysit’ a well-known film star, known to go astray, while he is in town shooting a new movie. Nothing is ever as straight-forward as it seems, though, and the boys are soon digging up secrets from the past. For more plot details, see Shelleyrae’s full review at Book’d Out.
I love this series. You might think that a mystery narrated by a dog is too cutesie, but Quinn saves them from that with Chet’s professional attitude and zest for life. As he says: I started to cheer up, partly because Bernie told me to and partly because, well, how long can you stay down in the dumps?
Read this if: you enjoy a solid mystery that’s not overly cozy but still clean; you’re a dog-lover & a mystery fan; or you’re reading the series and want the latest installment of SoCal’s smartest PI team. 4 stars

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MOON OVER MANIFEST by Claire Vanderpoole (Fiction, YA, Historical)
This 2010 winner of the Newbery Medal is the heart-warming story of Abilene Tucker who is spending the summer of 1936 in Manifest Kansas learning from Miss Sadie (the Diviner) about Manifest in 1918.
(Note: Miss Sadie has no supernatural powers – just memories and a deep insight into people.)
Vanderpoole kept me on the edge of my chair waiting for the next 1918 installment in the alternating story. I had as much fun as Abilene matching up the people then with those in ‘current-day’ 1936.
There’s a good deal of sadness in the tale, but things do work out for Abilene in the end.
Although YA is not my preferred genre, I found this book enchanting – and would have loved it as a pre-teen. It should become a childhood classic. Recommended.
Read this if: you enjoy stories about small towns and how their histories are made; or you’re 11 years old and want to read a story you’ll remember for years. 4 stars

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JULIE OF THE WOLVES by Jean Craighead George (Fiction, YA)
This unusual story of a 13-year-old Eskimo girl who survives in the Canadian Artic by ‘joining’ a wolf pack won the 1973 Newbery Medal. Julie of the Wolves is set in Alaska in what seems to be the early 1970s. Miyax/Julie (they all had two names, Eskimo and English) leaves an arranged marriage and sets out with some food to walk to her pen pal’s house in San Francisco. On the way, she learns self-reliance through the traditional ways, and finds her father.
Although it’s complimentary to the traditional Eskimos and their way of life: The people at seal camp had not been as outdated and old-fashioned as she had been led to believe. No, on the contrary, they had been wise. They had adjusted to nature instead of to man-made gadgets, and obliquely critical of the effect of the ‘gussaks’ on the Eskimo culture and society, there still seemed to me to be a bit of colonialism in the author’s presentation of Julie. Perhaps it’s only that the perspective is 40 years old.
Read this if: you’re interested in a period look at traditional Eskimo culture; or you’ve read Farley Mowat’s Never Cry Wolf and want to try a fictional account of wolf life. 3 stars

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KILMENY OF THE ORCHARD by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Fiction, YA, Romance)
This is the story of a substitute teacher at a rural school in Prince Edward Island who meets and falls in love with a mute girl. Other than her dumbness, Kilmeny is perfection itself, unbelievably beautiful (even the hands that help her aunt with 1910 rural housework), incredibly musically talented, and intelligent.
GAH! Beauty makes one desirable, Europeans are lower-class, happy, happy, happy endings are guaranteed. Gag me.
1 star for the descriptions of PEI because as the author says: Prince Edward Island in the month of June is such a thing as you don’t often see except in happy dreams. I might add that June in Nova Scotia plays out much the same.
Read this if: you like sappy romances and are willing to suspend disbelief for both characters and plot; or you feel you must read everything by Lucy Maud Montgomery. (I chose this simply because the title filled the “K” requirement – amazingly difficult to come by – for my A-Z Double Whammy Reading Challenge.)

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THE EYRE AFFAIR by Jasper Fforde (Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy) DNF
This is the second time I’ve attempted to read Fforde’s Thursday Next’s series. The first in the run The Eyre Affair seemed a perfect fit for me right now since I’d read Jane Eyre earlier this year. But I just don’t get it.
I know lots of people love these books. Do you have any advice for me?

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BOOK DEPOSITORY has free world-wide delivery:

OR: Pick up some bargains at

OR

Amazon links for CANADIAN readers:
The Divine Ryans
How Green Was My Valley
Twenty-Six
Midnight’s Children
Pierre & Janet Berton’s Canadian Food Guide
The Museum of Dr. Moses
A Fistful of Collars
Moon Over Manifest
Julie Of The Wolves
Kilmeny Of The Orchard

KINDLE editions:
Midnight’s Children
A Fistful of Collars (Chet and Bernie Mystery)
Moon Over Manifest
Julie of the Wolves
Kilmeny of the Orchard .99¢

I don’t remember much about September but maybe that’s because I had my head stuck in books. In addition to reading Stephen King’s latest (which tallies in at 849 pages) I read ten other books, all but one of which bring me closer to achieving completion of the 63 Reading Challenges I’m participating in this year. I have just one more month of reading to summarize and I’m caught up.

Enjoy this month’s extra links!

LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott (Fiction, Classics, YA)
This classic story of one year in the lives of the March sisters of New England during the American Civil War justly holds its place of honour in American literary tradition. This is really a Young Adult novel and I’m sure that each young (or older!) reader identifies with one of the sisters: the eldest, Meg who is maturing into a young women preparing for marriage; Jo, the impetuous tomboy & alter ego of the author; home-loving and painfully shy Beth; and the creative & somewhat spoiled baby, Amy; and events in the book involve all sisters in turn. Each chapter of Little Women contains a gentle moral, espousing a value such as honesty, industry or thriftiness with time and money.
I found this much easier to read than other 19th century novels, perhaps because it was targeting a young audience. My edition had several charming illustrated plates by Jessie Wilcox smith.
Read this if: you’d like to have a glimpse of the home-front during the American Civil War; you love a story that teaches old-fashioned morals; or you enjoy gentle old-fashioned adventures. 5 stars

Suggested reading companion to Little Women: March by Geraldine Brooks which follows the activities of the girls’ father, Mr. March during his enlistment. Note: March is not a YA novel.

IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote (Non-fiction, Crime)
In November 1959, two young ex-convicts robbed and murdered the Clutter family of four in Holcomb Kansas. A 300-word article in the New York Times about the crime interested the young Truman Capote enough for him to travel to Kansas to investigate the murders. Capote talked to locals, family, and police, ultimately compiling 8,000 pages of notes. After the criminals were found, tried, and convicted, Capote conducted personal interviews with both Smith and Hickock. It’s these that add the psychological interest to the book, which is written as narrative non-fiction.
In comparison to modern real-live crime books, In Cold Blood which keeps the gore to a minimum and focuses more on the criminals’ minds, may not be as compelling to some as I found it. But it chilled me to the bone, and contains what I think is the most unnerving line I’ve read in non-fiction, as the killer tells Capote: “I didn’t want to harm the man. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoke. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat.”
Read this if: you’re a fan of crime fiction; if you’re interested in how humans can sink without apparent reason to base behaviour; or you’d like to see how Capote wrote non-fiction. 4½ stars

THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ by Mordecai Richler (Literary Fiction, Canadian)
This is one of those classics of Canadian literature that I’d been meaning to read since high school 40 years ago, and was always embarrassed to tell anyone that I had not.
Apprenticeship, published in 1959, is set in Montreal and in the Jewish summer resorts of the Laurentian Mountains. We follow Duddy Kravitz as a boy that, if you are a certain age, you might describe as a two-bit punk: he fought, stole from Kresge’s department store and split streetcar tickets so they could be used twice. But Duddy wants to “make” it so, in his teens and twenties, following his grandfather’s advice that “a man without land is nothing”, he wheedles and hustles his way through scheme after scheme to purchase land for development. Along the way, he finds out just what morals he will compromise for his dream.
I’ve come to this CanLit icon late in life: this is only my second Richler, but along with Barney’s Version, it has convinced me that I must read his entire canon.
Read this if: you are interested in how other people achieve their dreams; you want to know about the Jewish experience in Montreal, Canada in the 1940s and ’50s; or you want an introduction to Mordecai Richler. 4 stars

CROW LAKE by Mary Lawson (Literary Fiction, Canadian)
This book won the Amazon.ca (formerly Books in Canada) First Novel Award for its author in 2002. Set in the near north of Ontario, Crow Lake tells the story of four siblings who lose both parents in a tragic accident one summer day, and their struggle to stay together and to fulfill their parents’ dream of them attending university. This sounds like a women’s novel, but it isn’t. And it isn’t the least bit a horror novel as the cover might suggest. My favourite quote: Memories. I’m not in favour of them, by and large. Not that there aren’t some good ones, but on the whole I’d like to put them in an airtight cupboard and close the door.
Doesn’t that make you want to find out why?
Read this if: if you enjoy family dramas or stories about the constrictions of unspoken class systems; or simply if you have siblings. 4 stars

THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder (Literary Fiction, Classic)
This classic, dug out of basement storage in our central library at my request, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1928. The copy I read was actually printed then, so was quite fragile.
The setting of this book is Lima Peru 250 years ago. One fateful day a bridge made of willows which for ages has spanned a deep gorge near the city, breaks, and five people plunge to their deaths. Brother Juniper, a monk, witnesses the accident and determines to trace the life stories of the five to prove his belief that each of them in some way deserved this fate, and that such a catastrophe was God’s will.
Thankfully, I found that Brother Juniper’s purpose in researching the characters paled to the characters themselves and their intersecting lives. Not only a study of Peruvian society of the 18th century, but also an unmasking of societal attitudes of the 1920s.
As an aside: A new biography, Thornton Wilder: A Life by Penelope Niven was released October 30th, 2012.
Read this if: you love to see how lives intersect & the part circumstance plays in one’s destiny; or if you’re looking for a fairly short & not difficult-to-read classic to complete a reading challenge. 3½ stars

TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY in Search of America by John Steinbeck (Non-fiction, Travel)
In the fall of 1960, John Steinbeck set out with a well-stocked camper truck and his standard bred poodle named Charley, to travel across America. His route took him from New York up to Maine from where he turned east, eventually crossing the prairies to visit the California of his boyhood before heading back east and catching Texas on the way.
Travels with Charley is a fascinating look at the America of half a century ago and of Steinbeck’s perceptions and assimilations of it. Steinbeck himself admits these may not mirror any other person’s when he says: I cannot commend this as an account as an America that you will find [in 1960]. So much there is to see, but our morning eyes describe a different world than do our afternoon eyes(.)
At the beginning of the trip (and the book), the author gives the reader lots of personal details both about his adventure, the places he sees, and the people he meets. But as the book progresses, the story is recounted in greater generalities, and he drives hundreds of miles without talking to anyone.
This is understandable since as he says: This journey has been like a full dinner of many courses, set before a starving man. At first, he tries to eat all of everything, but as the meal progresses he finds he must forgo some things to keep his appetite and his taste buds functioning.
Steinbeck made the observation that When we get these [inter-state] thruways across the whole country, as we will and must, it will be possible to drive from New York to California without seeing a single thing. We should all be glad he captured some of life as it was before that happened.
Read this if: you’d like a taste of a simpler country; you’d like to discover a time-capsule of society in mid-twentieth century America; or you’re a Steinbeck fan and would like to get to know the author a bit better. 3½ stars

11/22/63 by Stephen King (Popular Fiction, Time-Travel, Science-Fiction)
When I was in high school, I read Stephen King’s Carrie which I had not realized until I had nearly finished it, is a classic horror novel. That put me off King, and I haven’t read another of his books in over 40 years.
But reassured by recent reviews & synopses that 11/22/63 is not a horror tale but, indeed, is one of my favourite genres–time travel–I tackled this chunkster.
As everyone must know by now, the story concerns a time ‘hole’ from the present back to 1958 Maine. The dying owner of the diner where the warp is located exacts a promise from our protagonist, Jake, to ‘go back’ and prevent Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating John F. Kennedy in November 1963. Does Jake succeed in his mission? I’ll leave it to you to find out.
Stephen King has described his own work as the “Big Mac and fries” of literature. There are so many applications of that metaphor : mass marketed, branded, appealing to the eye, easy to go down, only moderately nutritious, and certainly not something of which one should make a steady diet. But as a treat – this beats James Patterson, for sure.
Read this if: you’re a fan of Time and Again written by Jack Finney to whom King was going to dedicate his book until a new granddaughter was born; you love time-travel stories and haven’t yet read Finney (read him now); you like to speculate what the present would be like if major events of the past were altered; or you enjoy reading (or like me, reminiscing) about mid-twentieth century America. 3½ stars

THE ILLUSTRATED MAN by Ray Bradbury (Science Fiction)
I remember reading this in my teens and thinking it phenomenal, but my tastes have changed and I found it a little disappointing this time through.
The illustrated man of the title is covered in tattoos that come to life at night and reveal the stories herein. But the illustrated man is just a device to string together a collection of Bradbury’s (mostly) previously published short stories. Most of the stories are set on Mars or other space venues, or are in the future (including two ‘end of the world’ stories.)
The tales vary in quality and interest to me. The first one The Veldt is the one I particularly remembered from my first reading and is, in my opinion, the best of the bunch. It’s set in (what seems to be) the future, where a children’s playroom has interactive walls that provide atmospheric backdrop to their ‘play’. The Long Rain, the only story in this collection set on Venus, is also memorable from this reading, but the others all run together for me. It’s classic science-fiction, but it’s just not my genre.
Read this if: you’re a fan of short stories set in space; you’re a sci-fi fan who wants to cover the classics of the genre; or to celebrate Red Planet Day on November 29th. 3 stars

A JEST OF GOD by Margaret Laurence (Fiction, Canadian)
Another classic of Canadian literature and a huge disappointment for me as a fan of Margaret Laurence whose Stone Angel is one of my favourite books.
A Jest of God follows Rachel Cameron, a 34-year-old spinster school teacher in the small prairie town of Manawaka. Because it’s told in the first person from Rachel’s view, we are privy to Rachel’s thoughts. For most of the book there is a wide discrepancy between what Rachel is in her visible public life, how she deals with and appears to others, and what she really thinks and feels. Rachel’s life is dull – she lives with her mother and has no real friends. Then she meets an old high school classmate, visiting for the summer from the city, and begins an affair. That yields one of Laurence’s wonderful lines: “Some poisons have sweetness at the first taste, but they are willing to kill you just the same.”
Despite Laurence’s writing, I really had a hard time with this book. I didn’t like Rachel at all and wanted to slap her silly: she hated being misunderstood but never said what she thought. She mistook a physical affair based on lust for love, and became obsessed with Nick.
Read this if: you’ve seen the movie Rachel, Rachel and want to read the book upon which it was based; or you’re reading the entire Laurence canon, as I am. 3 stars

YELLOWTHREAD STREET by William Marshall (Fiction, Police)
“If you’re a tourist in bustling Hong Kong, don’t venture into the seedy dancehall district of Hong Bay. Detective Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer and the cops of Yellowthread Street Station can tell you why.”
Published in 1975 when Hong Kong was still British-owned and (evidently) British-policed, this first in the series introduces us to the station staff and a few of the area streets, and not much else. There is very little plot, rather just the meandering day by day occurrences and interactions of policing in the largely Chinese district. There are 16 books in this series, so someone likes it enough to follow up. For its glimpse of Hong Kong in an easily readable format, 2½ stars
Read this if: you’re interested in a laid-back look at policing in British-held Hong Kong; or you need a book with the color ‘yellow’ in the title for a Colour Reading Challenge, and a ‘Y’ book in an A-Z reading challenge. (BAM.)

THE MINOTAUR TAKES A CIGARETTE BREAK by Steven Sherrill (Fiction)
I picked this up for $2 on a sale table at Chapters but for the life of me, I don’t know why. Yes, it’s that Minotaur—the head of a bull on the body of a man—now living and working in small town America as a chef. I’ll give the author a couple of points for imagining the day to day difficulties of fitting into modern society, but I couldn’t discern a plot to the book. Others might feel differently – this book ranks surprisingly high on Amazon’s charts.
Read this if: you’re a real fan of Greek mythology and love new takes on old themes. 2 stars

BOOK DEPOSITORY has free world-wide delivery:

OR: Pick up some bargains at

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Amazon links for CANADIAN readers:
Little Women
March
In Cold Blood
Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Barney’s Version
Crow Lake
The Bridge Of San Luis Rey
Travels with Charley in Search of America
11/22/63
The Illustrated Man
A Jest of God
Yellowthread Street
The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break

KINDLE EDITIONS:
The Complete Little Women Series: Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo’s Boys (4 books in one) .99¢
In Cold Blood
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Crow Lake
Travels with Charley in Search of America
11/22/63

The $50,000 ScotiaBank Giller Prize for Fiction was awarded tonight to Will Ferguson for his novel 419. The Scotiabank Giller Prize is Canada’s most distinguished literary prize, awarded annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English.

This year’s jury made this citation about Ferguson and 419:
“Will Ferguson’s 419 points in the direction of something entirely new: the Global Novel. It is a novel emotionally and physically at home in the poverty of Lagos and in the day-to-day of North America. It tells us the ways in which we are now bound together and reminds us of the things that will always keep us apart. It brings us the news of the world far beyond the sad, hungry faces we see on CNN and CBC and far beyond the spreadsheets of our pension plans. Ferguson is a true travel writer, his eye attuned to the last horrible detail. He is also a master at dialogue and suspense. It is tempting to put 419 in some easy genre category, but that would only serve to deny its accomplishment and its genius.”

You can read my review of 419 here. (So I was wrong. I’m glad.)